Protégé: Padawans
by Andrea13 and PersephoneKore
Summary: Sequel to "Protégé: Chosen." Dooku and Anakin begin learning to deal with one another, and Anakin meets the unexpected while seeking his lightsaber crystal in the caves of Ilum.
1. Chapter 1

_Disclaimer: This is a work of fanfiction based on the Star Wars movies and various pieces of the EU. No undue claim nor any material profit is expected or intended._

* * *

Dodging a slung projectile when Anakin sent it winging across their quarters on his way through the door was not exactly challenging, but dealing with the action might be. Dooku ducked, stopped the flight of the errant circuitry with a pull on the Force, and sat up to arch his eyebrows sternly. "What was that display of temper about?"

"It's not temper," Anakin muttered, kicking at the floor with his feet. "Just...irritated." His datapad landed on the table with a clatter as Anakin divested himself of his remaining belongings.

"That would usually come under the heading of temper," Dooku pointed out. "Also, while I, the datapad, and whatever you threw at me remain undamaged, that wouldn't be the case for every possible target. Releasing your irritation into the Force would be more appropriate." He examined the thing he'd retrieved, didn't recognize it, and set it on the table. "That technique is still new to you, or I'd have you use it to calm yourself before answering this question, but meanwhile -- why are you irritated?"

"Nothing," Anakin growled. "I'm fine. They're all just stupid anyway."

"Padawan," Dooku said, "I somehow doubt that, although it is possible that 'they' are not behaving wisely either. Come sit down." He made his own words less sharp than he was inclined to, turning the command into an invitation. This time. "And please, explain a bit more clearly."

Anakin sat. And burst out, "I just went to class like you told me to! I wasn't doing anything wrong. I don't want to know all that stupid stuff anyway." He leaned back against the arm of the couch, his arms crossed obstinately. "They didn't have to laugh at me."

"Ah," Dooku said, and sighed. "No, they did not. And should not."

"It's not like turning flips on a high-wire is going to help anybody on Tatooine. Don't know why they expect me to do it." He sighed. "Can't I just train with you? I don't want to go to those stupid classes!"

"Thank you for the mark of confidence, but I'm afraid," Dooku said firmly, "that there are often tasks we must complete, and do well and calmly... despite the poor behavior of others. I can focus some of your instruction time apart from classes on the topics you need to catch up on, but you will still have to attend several of them and learn the material." He wasn't pleased with himself, either, for failing to realize that gymnastics would be a problem. It had always been so generally considered fun. But of course Anakin was starting from the beginning there too. He'd done most of his cavorting on Tatooine in vehicles.

Anakin blew out a breath and leaned his head back. "But I don't want to! They just laugh at me! No one wants to talk to me! I tried, but they won't." Another huff. "I don't know what I'm doing wrong!"

Dooku sighed. "Wrong? No." Well, at the moment he was being petulant, but Dooku thought it very probable that he'd approached his classmates in much the same way he'd approached new meetings on Naboo. "You're new, and different, among a group that has been taught together for over half their lives and had every reason to think that there wouldn't be anyone new coming in at this age. You know things they don't and don't know many of the things they do; you haven't been taught the same expectations they have. Jedi are trained to appreciate and seek to understand the unfamiliar, but we're no more naturally immune to being unsettled by it than anyone else. And they are not by any means fully trained." He paused. "And to make sure this is quite clear, no, they are not behaving appropriately by Jedi standards or by... well, basic manners. But that doesn't remove your obligation to do so."

"So they can just not like me because I'm new, but I have to be nice to them anyway? That stinks." Anakin shifted around on the couch, still looking grumpy. "Back home, everyone moves around so much you have to make new friends. You could get sold any time and have to go somewhere new. This is just...weird."

And what Anakin had described sounded utterly appalling, though the response seemed healthy enough. "...Yes, I suppose it is," Dooku said. "I think they'll grow used to you soon enough, though." He hesitated, then winced. "Although it is possible that some of them, especially those a little older than you, will resent you for being a Padawan already."

"Already? But Master Yoda kept saying I was too old!"

"Ah. I should probably have explained that somewhat more thoroughly. Generally speaking, the Jedi now won't begin training a child who's older than five standard years -- they say four, but in areas where there wasn't a testing opportunity for some time it's often pushed by some months. I was nearly four when my parents gave me to the Jedi, and one of the oldest children in the Creche entry-group. At that stage the term is most technically 'Initiate' -- though 'apprentice' and 'padawan' are also correct, and Master Yoda in particular will use them."

"I know you said everyone started earlier. I just -- how can I be too old and too young at the same time? It's not fair!"

Dooku shook his head. "You are not too young to be a Padawan apprenticed to a specific Master. You are relatively young. It's permitted to begin as young as eight, and nine or ten is not uncommon -- but neither is waiting until eleven or twelve. At thirteen, those who have not been chosen by Knights or Masters... are considered to have passed through the period when their apprenticeship may begin, and are usually sent to one of the Corps -- Exploration, Medical, or Agricultural -- for alternative training. Many stay there; others leave when they're able to begin a different career." Dooku's mouth quirked. "It is not, as I understand it, a particularly dreadful fate by any objective measure. Many people join the Corps who were never trained as Jedi at all. Some Jedi spend time in them after they have become Knights. But -- and this is why I'm telling you about it -- when a child who wants to be a Jedi is approaching the age of thirteen, and unchosen... the question looms very large indeed." He swallowed. "I lost a friend that way." Someone he had thought was a friend, at least.

"...So the ones who're almost thirteen and can do everything I can't think they should be your padawan instead of me?" Too heavy of a sigh for a ten-year-old. "I just...wanted to be friends." His voice was very small.

"They are probably hoping very intensely to be someone's padawan. And they may well feel you were unfairly given special treatment." It wasn't a pleasant truth. Dooku tried to imagine his own reaction, had Anakin arrived at the Temple in his youth. He wasn't sure he'd have done any better. He probably wouldn't have laughed; he might have been drawn to the boy's open friendliness -- but he would have found the demonstrativeness strange; he would probably have found the raw power (more than his) threatening, and been jealous; he might have taken refuge in feeling superior in what he knew how to do. He would have thought of it as special treatment, as much as some others had regarded Yoda's attention to him in that light. At that age he would not yet have understood just how difficult Anakin's life had been before, or the new difficulties he was meeting.

...All told, Dooku was just as glad to have been grown, even grown old, when he met Anakin.

"I have the uneasy feeling I might have failed to behave much better in their place," he said aloud, realizing that he'd fallen silent in his musings and Anakin was sitting drooped and unhappy. "Which shames me. And which also might have deprived me of your friendship, which would have been a considerable loss."

"Yeah, well, they don't seem to think so." Anakin sighed. "I can learn to do stupid flips if that's what it takes." He slumped again and muttered, "Bet none of them can podrace."

"Probably not. And yes, you will learn the flips, and the control and habits of the body that they're meant to help develop. You may even enjoy them eventually. And I do think that at least some of your classmates will eventually find they like you." Dooku paused, studying him. "Speaking of control and habits of the body -- you should sit up. A habit of upright and relaxed posture is... foundational, and will make the motions you need to learn come more readily."

Anakin cast him a dubious look, but he wriggled to the edge of the couch and sat up very straight and proper, enough to please his mother at her most strict. "Is this right?"

Dooku surveyed him carefully. "Good." Better than he'd expected, actually. "Let me--" He laid a hand on Anakin's back, along the spine, examining it and exerting a very small, precise amount of pressure to show the bones and muscles where they should ideally rest. "It may not seem that way until you get used to it, but it's actually more restful than slumping."

Anakin made a face. "Doesn't seem like it, but I'll remember." His brow was slightly furrowed, carefully committing the strange position to memory.

"Motion and stillness," Dooku murmured, "are of the same substance. Both focus in your center of mass, and both are inclined to proceed until disrupted. The more you can relax, and the less incidental strain you put on yourself that is not part of your exertion, the more you will be able to do without injury when you do exert yourself."

"Yes, Master." The phrase was starting to become automatic, if it wasn't there quite yet. "You explain it a lot better than Knight Phra'on does."

"I'm glad to have helped." Dooku smiled. "I might do less well placed in front of the gymnastics class, though. Group teaching is not my strong suit."

"You seem like a really good teacher to me," Anakin said loyally. "Could you...maybe show me some of the gymnastics stuff, without everyone around? I want to do better next time."

"I would be glad to." Dooku nodded at the most open area of the floor. "We can stretch out now and and then go find an open practice room."

"Okay!" Anakin bounded off the couch. The next time he saw those _echutas_, he'd show them he wasn't stupid.

Dooku gripped the back of the couch and casually rolled over it, dropping to the open space behind, and they began. Or rather, they began meditating, which did not strike Anakin as a stretch, but he was (rather to his surprise) feeling a little better by the time they started moving.

The meditation had another benefit, too, one Anakin never would have predicted. With the Force singing so loudly in him -- enough that he wondered how he'd ever not heard it, or not realized what it was -- his muscles seemed to stretch farther than before, his limbs bend just a little more, his muscles hold him just a little longer. It made the stretches so much easier he was almost laughing by the end of them. "So that's why Knight Phra'on kept telling me to open myself to the Force. I knew it helped me podrace, but I didn't think it could make my body different like that."

Dooku smiled openly and warmly at that. "Yes, exactly. Our living bodies are part of the Living Force, and opening ourselves to its flow through them greatly increases what we can do." A short laugh. "It will also sustain us through much greater efforts or deprivations than we could survive otherwise, although since it is grounded in nature it will eventually also require us to employ such natural methods of recovery as rest, food, and water. Usually," he added after a moment's thought. "There are records suggesting beings who have progressed to the point of being sustained solely by the Force. But it's somewhat unclear whether this is intended to mean that they stopped eating, drinking, et cetera, or if it's actually supposed to be making the point that such actions part of the Force, of the way life works. That's something to remember, that's easy for even many Jedi to forget. Our abilities through the Force are natural, because the Force is part of the nature of things."

Anakin nodded thoughtfully. "Some of the spacers told stories about Jedi tricks. Watto too, but he mostly laughed about them. People called it witchcraft, sometimes, said it wasn't right. But I never believed them. And then when I found Master Qui-Gon and figured out he was a Jedi, I knew they were wrong, because he could never be anything bad."

"Qui-Gon, I think, is a better person by nature than many of us ever aspire to be by self-discipline. Not perfect, but very good -- and in general, very willing to listen to the guidance of the Force, even when it goes against his preconceptions." Dooku looked across at the opposite wall for a moment, then back at Anakin. "It's possible for Jedi abilities to be misused. Sometimes by Jedi, but also... well, there's a reason we are reluctant to train anyone in the techniques who seems likely to abandon the disciplines."

_Komari._

_Let go._

Dooku swallowed and drew a slightly unsteady breath, reaching for calm -- and finding it, this time. "The techniques are less effective without discipline, but they don't just disappear. Sometimes the sources of such stories are cases like that. Sometimes they're a matter of Jedi... succumbing to temptation, even if temporarily. Or making mistakes. And sometimes, depending on the other activities of the people who were telling the stories, they come of being legitimately thwarted. I don't know much about Watto's clientele, but I imagine it's safe to surmise that some of them were not friendly with Republic legal concerns."

Anakin laughed. "If that's a fancy way of saying they were thieves and crooks, you got that right." He grinned. "I learned how to fix lots of things where you shouldn't ask just how they got broken. Or blasted."

"You'll probably find that's still useful when we start going on missions again," Dooku said. "In most missions, the ideal outcome involves not being shot at, much less hit. However, if the ideal outcome were expected, we probably wouldn't be involved at all."

Anakin grinned. "Sounds like fun!" Missions sounded like fun, frankly. Getting out of the Temple and just being with Master Dooku sounded like an awfully nice prospect.

"Being shot at?" Dooku shook his head. "Jedi are not to crave adventure and excitement." He beckoned Anakin toward the door and added somewhat conspiratorially, "But to be fair, sometimes it's fun anyway."

Anakin laughed and trotted after him. This was much nicer than being laughed at by a bunch of kids. And with Master Dooku's help, he'd show them all what he could do.

He couldn't wait.

* * *

Anakin's next gymnastics class wasn't as nice as working with Master Dooku, but it was certainly nicer than before. He still wasn't quite at the level of most of the other students, but he had improved dramatically -- after a very short amount of time -- and he could tell they were startled. Better still, he could understand more of what Knight Phra'on's instructions were supposed to accomplish, and he could feel that he was going to be able to do everything.

Catching up on several years of history classes and millennia of actual history still looked pretty daunting, though.

It was several days later, when Anakin was starting to wonder if he was ever going to manage to do anything else right, and Dooku was repeating something about the Living Force that he must have said at least once a day since Anakin was apprenticed to him, that he broke out in the middle of the lecture with, "I'm not stupid!"

Dooku stopped mid-sentence and regarded him sternly. "I don't recall suggesting that you were," he said. "Explain this outburst, Padawan."

"You've told me that a dozen times! I know I'm behind, but I don't forget everything by the next day."

Dooku looked at him. "There are truths that bear repeating, Learner. If you would attune yourself more to the Living Force, perhaps you would not respond with rudeness to imagined insults."

Anakin's face went hot, and his hands balled into fists. "I'm not imagining it!"

"I do not think you are stupid," Dooku said rather sharply.

"You act like it! You're just as bad as everyone else! I thought you were supposed to believe in me!"

"Yes. And I am supposed to teach you, which I am doing. I don't see how I've given you any other impression."

"Of course not. Because you're the perfect Master and I'm the stupid charity case padawan you wish you never even took!" Anakin's fists were clenched tightly, but after a moment, he turned and just fled the room.

"What in the name of the stars?" Dooku asked of no one in particular. He was beginning to agree with the Council's assessment that Anakin had a great deal of anger in him, though not with the idea that working to overcome it wasn't worth the risk. The boy's natural state seemed to be cheerful, and Dooku had been trying to reinforce the advantages of this state (and calm) in the Force. The anger usually seemed to have some reason to emerge, and Dooku was considering a discussion sometime with Qui-Gon or Yoda of how to handle the flares of temper without encouraging the dangerous habit of hiding it and nursing it cold.

He was more inclined to the latter himself, whether that was by nature or because growing up among Jedi did not encourage letting it show, and the flares seemed strange to him, but he ... well, what he'd done with Komari hadn't been right, and Anakin was a different person altogether, and he could cope with it if Yoda picked at the training decision when he came to him with concerns. Or smacked him in the shins, which was possible. Dooku rather thought Yoda's temper might naturally be more like Anakin's.

But he was at a loss what had set it off this time! Anakin's words weren't particularly helping, as Dooku was fairly sure he'd never claimed or otherwise indicated anything of the kind.

He had decided to go after his wayward apprentice -- he wasn't sure cooling off elsewhere was likely, especially if Anakin ran into someone else -- and was about halfway there when he realized Anakin had encountered Obi-Wan.

Dooku hesitated for a handful of heartbeats, then withdrew. Obi-Wan was sensible, and Anakin seemed to like him. Perhaps Obi-Wan would better be able to calm the boy down. And perhaps he could seek help for himself in understanding.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

"Hey!" Obi-Wan called out as a body went streaking by him. "Calm yourself, youngling. Is there a fire?" Then he caught sight of the boy's face and smiled. "Ah, Anakin. It's good to see you. I didn't recognize you hurtling through the corridors like that."

"Hi, Obi-Wan." Anakin stopped. Obi-Wan still liked him. At least, he thought so. Or Obi-Wan had started liking him, one of those. "It's good to see you too."

Obi-Wan tilted his head a little and asked, "So where are you off to? Not late to class, are you?"

Anakin shook his head. "No, I... hadn't decided yet." Where had he been going? Most of the time, even with Master Dooku like he was now, his quarters seemed like the safest place to feel anything.

"You were certainly in a hurry for not knowing!" Obi-Wan smiled at him, then offered, "I was on my way to one of the gardens, actually. Have you had a chance to see much of them?"

"A little bit...." Anakin scuffed the floor with one foot. "I haven't really started catching up on... botany... yet." He hoped he'd gotten that word right. Tatooine did have plants, but people didn't talk much about studying them.

"Fortunately, plants are a subject you can enjoy without having to know much about them at all. Would you like to come with me for a little while?" Something about the boy seemed... troubled. Perhaps the peace of the gardens would help.

"Sure," Anakin said. "Thanks." Enjoying someething without having to have learned everything about it already seemed pretty good, really.

"No problem. Come along, then." Obi-Wan continued walking, this time with Anakin trailing in his wake. The boy seemed...subdued somehow. Obi-Wan wondered if he should call in Master Dooku. Well, perhaps a little quiet and friendly conversation was all he needed.

When they entered the gardens, Anakin's eyes lit up. "It's so green."

"Yes." Obi-Wan smiled. The Temple gardens were easy to enjoy, although he would admit that he wasn't quite as fond of some elements of the process (being elbow-deep in dirt and fertilizer, for instance) as Qui-Gon. "I don't know why, but it's about the most common color for foliage across the galaxy. And one of the most commonly viewed as restful." He laughed. "Maybe that's just because most people are inclined to like looking at plants."

"Makes sense," Anakin said, moving in. "Healthy plants means there's stuff to live on... oases...." He frowned. "Somebody told me once Tatooine used to be green, but something happened to it."

"That happens to many planets. Something strikes it, or the sun -- or suns -- grow hotter. Climates change. But life always finds a way to survive." Obi-Wan squeezed Anakin's shoulder and sank down easily to sit amid the greenery, beside an artificial river that curled through the plants and babbled peacefully. Anakin copied the movement, a little more awkwardly.

They sat quietly for a few minutes, and then Anakin said suddenly, "Coruscant's climate must've changed a lot."

"Over the years, yes. It's been a city-planet for centuries now. Everything's so regulated, I don't know how it remembers to be alive anymore. The Temple gardens are some of the only bits of natural life on Coruscant, other than the people."

"I wonder what it was like before it was a city," Anakin said. "Master Dooku says it was a lot smaller, because the buildings are all layered up, only then they dug down inside it too."

"Yes. As more and more people began to live here, they started building higher and higher. No one ever goes to the very lowest depths, not even the Jedi. I don't even know if people still live by the surface."

Anakin was brooding again now, though. He'd reminded himself about Master Dooku. Was he supposed to change as much as Coruscant? Could people even find the surface anymore?

After some moments of silence, Obi-Wan decided that this was not a peaceful silence, and said quietly, "Anakin?"

"I..." Anakin looked fixedly at his hands. "Can Masters...give up padawans after they've taken one?"

"Er... yes, technically, but only in extreme circumstances." Obi-Wan paused. He saw Qui-Gon less than he had when he was still a Padawan, of course, but he still saw him enough to be aware that Qui-Gon and Master Dooku had apparently rather enthusiastically renewed their previous acquaintance, to the point that Obi-Wan was rather at a loss as to why he'd seen so little of Dooku during his own apprenticeship. Both busy, apparently, and there were some strange leftover tensions, but.... At any rate, he certainly hadn't been under the impression that this question should be coming up. "Why?"

"I -- I think Master Dooku wishes he'd taken somebody else. Somebody who wasn't so stupid. I'm not," Anakin said fiercely, fists balling up again, "but he thinks I am! I don't know everything the other younglings do, but I can still learn! But he thinks I'm stupid, just like everyone else does."

_Don't draw conclusions too soon,_ Obi-Wan heard in his head. It was mostly in Qui-Gon's voice, although there was a Yoda-ish tinge to it that garbled the grammatical structure. "That's not the impression I've gotten," Obi-Wan said carefully. "Certainly Qui-Gon and I don't think you're stupid, and I was under the impression Master Dooku was pleased with your progress."

"He -- I thought he was. At first. But...I can't do anything right anymore," Anakin said plaintively. "He used to say I was doing well. But now he just goes off on a lecture again, and he tells me things he's told me ten times! If he didn't think I was too stupid to remember, he wouldn't keep repeating it."

Obi-Wan laughed. "Stars, I hope that's not it. I lost count of how many times Qui-Gon repeated some things to me." He sobered again. "I don't know what kind of things he's repeating, but there are many points about Jedi philosophy that are learned -- even studied -- by repetition. In meditating, you might repeat a thought... say, the Code, or something shorter... again and again, as it sinks in to become a part of you, and you come to understand it better. I've found that very useful. It's not a matter of simply remembering it, but of making it a habit." Obi-Wan's mouth quirked up. "Of course, that means Master Dooku has had about seventy years to get into the habit of repeating himself."

Anakin smiled, just a little. "I -- I didn't used to mind when he repeated stuff, because I still knew I was doing things right. But...I can't even think when the last time he said I did something right was!"

"Well, I seriously doubt you've stopped," Obi-Wan said thoughtfully. "Can you feel it in the Force when you've done something well?"

"I -- I don't know. I used to think so, but...it's hard to tell. I could tell I was right when Master Dooku was saying it!"

"Maybe... that would be something to ask him about." Obi-Wan smiled wryly. "I know, that's not exactly a comfortable idea."

Anakin huffed. "Anytime I ask him a question anymore, he just goes off for ten minutes. I know most of what he's saying, and he won't listen to me about what I'm asking!"

"...Oh dear." And how was he supposed to handle this, anyway? He seriously doubted that Dooku was really regretting the decision, and he imagined that Dooku's side of the story would be rather different, but he wasn't sure what to do about Anakin, here and now. "Well, perhaps you can take it as an opportunity to practice patience, and try again at the end. Feeling you can't talk to your Master... does tend to lead to problems."

"He was really nice at first," Anakin said in a small voice. "When everyone else was laughing at me for not knowing things. Makes it worse when he's the one who thinks..."

"I really doubt he thinks you're stupid, or a failure," Obi-Wan said firmly. "He knows very well that you're getting something of a late start... but I don't suppose he's taught anyone who hadn't already been a Jedi for several years before, either. There would be things he's still figuring out about that, too."

"...But Master Dooku knows everything."

"He knows a great deal about being a Jedi," Obi-Wan said, "but I'm fairly sure he doesn't know quite everything. For instance, he says he used to leave a lot of engine work to Master Qui-Gon." He reached out automatically toward the place in his mind with the old bond, casting out from there, and though it was fainter than before, into his mind trickled... a clash of lightsabers? His eyes widened slightly. "They're dueling."

"Master Dooku and Master Qui-Gon?" Anakin blinked. "But -- why? And how do you know that?"

"Ah... for practice, I assume. And...." Obi-Wan paused. "The mental bond between Master and Padawan is said to be 'severed' at Knighthood, but it's more... loosened, really, than broken. Like the relationship it's part of. I can still find Qui-Gon in the Force more readily than most other Jedi, out of long practice."

Anakin blinked. "You mean I could find Master Dooku like that?"

"Probably. I gather you haven't tried it before?"

Anakin shook his head wordlessly, his eyes wide. "That would be wizard, though."

"All right." Obi-Wan leaned forward slightly. "You know what he feels like in the Force when he's near you, don't you? Reach for the bond to him..." Perhaps Dooku hadn't gotten around to talking about the bond yet? "The part of your mind that feels the most that way," he continued smoothly. "And that should help you to find him."

Anakin bit his lip and thought real hard. He used the Force mostly around Dooku, when they were meditating or Dooku was trying to teach him to do something. There was always this sense of something...solid, like a wall he could shelter behind or lean against, whichever he needed at the time. He didn't remember really feeling that when he was using the Force anywhere else, and he knew he hadn't felt it back when he was just using the Force to podrace. Maybe that's what Obi-Wan was talking about?

He reached out tentatively with his mind, a little clumsily. He was used to touching the Force by now, but not feeling around inside his own head. For just a moment, he could hear the clash of lightsabers and smell the slight hint of ozone. Then there was a rush of surprise that threw him off balance. He lost the connection and found himself blinking at Obi-Wan from half on the ground. "...That was weird."

Obi-Wan was half up on his knees, looking mildly alarmed, but settled back down again. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah. I -- I could tell there were lightsabers. I couldn't tell anything else."

"It doesn't usually involve falling over," Obi-Wan said. "Was something wrong?"

"There was, um...It felt like being really surprised, and then I lost my balance." And now he was feeling worried for no reason, the oddest feeling just kind of sweeping over him and poking around. What was happening to him? Why would he be poking around his own -- Anakin stopped and blinked. "Obi-Wan, can -- Master Dooku can use the bond like that too, can't he? And...would you be able to feel someone on the other end?"

"Yes," Obi-Wan said. Apparently Dooku really had completely overlooked this topic. Granted, some master-padawan pairs barely used the bond at all, to the point of its being practically nonexistent, and it had taken some time for his bond to Qui-Gon to strengthen, but.... He bit down on a smile. "I suppose if you haven't done much with it before, perhaps having you pop up, mentally, during a lightsaber duel was something of a surprise for him...."

Anakin grinned. "I guess that would do it." He tried reaching out to the wall again, reassuringly. _Fine, see? Sorry._

A hint of surprise again, then... words. _I wasn't expecting to hear from you._ There were feelings around the words, too. Not just the surprise. Some happiness, and... relief?

Anakin's eyes widened. He concentrated very hard on forming the words in his head, not sure exactly how to do this. _Obi-Wan told me a little about it. I didn't know you could talk in people's heads. This is wizard! I didn't mean to interrupt you and Master Qui-Gon, though._

_Quite all right. ...I probably should have thought to mention this before now._ Dooku sounded vaguely apologetic. And also still surprised.

_I think I sort of felt something before, but I never knew it was you._

_Well... here I am._ A pause. _If I may ask, how did you and Obi-Wan arrive at the subject of psychic communication?_

_He didn't say anything about talking to you. He just said he could tell you and Master Qui-Gon were dueling, and I asked him how he knew. He said I could feel where you were through our bond. I know you'd talked about a bonding, but I didn't know you meant there was actually something there._

_Ah. Yes, there is._ A hint of a smile, maybe. Anakin didn't sense lightsabers anymore. _Although even with a close connection, actually 'talking' can be something of a challenge. _

_...Does that mean I should stop?_

Dooku's laugh felt even nicer than it sounded. _No, Padawan, I just wanted to let you know you'd done well at something that is not always easy._

Bright joy burst through Anakin's mind. _Thank you, Master!_

Dooku blinked, slightly dazzled. More so given Anakin's earlier reaction to him. _You're welcome! _

_...I'll try to do better, Master. I'm sorry I yelled at you._

_I have to admit, I wasn't expecting you to be looking for me. _

_I'm sorry._

_Thank you._ A pause. _Are you ready to tell me what prompted it? Because honestly, I'm still entirely at a loss. _

_...I thought I couldn't do anything right anymore and you didn't want to keep me as your padawan._

_...You said as much, yes. Neither is true, and I still don't understand how you got the idea. _

_Because I haven't done anything right in days!_ Anakin thought back in despair. _I thought I was learning how to do all this, but -- I'll think I've got it right and you just go back to repeating the same thing I've heard ten times! I can learn it, really._

_This is hardly the first thing you've done right in days,_ Dooku said after a moment's shock. _You are doing very well, Anakin, and improving rapidly in many areas._ A slight pause. _You will find that the more you accomplish, the more will be expected of you -- a given level of doing well will begin to be assumed, and corrections or suggestions offered that couldn't even have been addressed before._ The thought took on a faintly sheepish air. But I should know better than to assume that's obvious. _It wasn't to me, even when I was older than you are. _

_...You mean you're not saying I'm doing well anymore because...I'm doing so well? _Anakin sounded very confused. _I don't mind you expecting more, I just.... _

_Not... exactly. I began by explaining a great deal more than I normally would, simply because you wouldn't have had the opportunity to hear most of it before. Ordinarily, I explain what's being done correctly at the start, and later begin to rely on the padawan's sense of the Force for how things feel when they are right, once there's been time to develop a sense of it. Apparently,_ Dooku added wryly, _I've shifted to explaining less, but of the wrong things. ...Although you should know that a great deal of Jedi practice is studied through repetition, because the goal is not only to be aware of and remember it, but to make it a part of you--_ Dooku broke off in confusion. _Why is that funny? _

_Obi-Wan said the same thing, that's all._ Anakin was grinning, partly out of humor but largely out of sheer relief. _He also said you weren't any more used to having a padawan who wasn't trained by the Jedi already than I'm used to all the training._

_That's also true,_ Dooku said. _Aside from your specific situation being unusual, I haven't spent much time with the children who are just starting their training at the usual age since I ceased to be one of them. _

_...So I guess we're doing some learning together, huh?_

_Oh, yes. I have long believed that there are few experiences more educational than teaching. _

_It seems like you know everything._ A quick grin. _But I think I like it better this way. Can I come watch you and Master Qui-Gon duel? _

_Of course you may. Are you bringing Obi-Wan?_

_Um....good question. I'll ask him._ Anakin blinked and finally focused on Obi-Wan again, noticing the Knight was looking at him a little oddly. "Sorry. Just talking to Master Dooku. I'm going to go watch them practice. Want to come?"

"Certainly." Obi-Wan rose smoothly. Very little dirt clung to him from the garden. This seemed to be a feature of Jedi clothing, and Anakin looked forward to finding out whether it worked on engine lubricants.

Qui-Gon and Dooku had resumed their practice by the time Anakin and Obi-Wan arrived. The fighters acknowledged their spectators -- Dooku with a brief nod, Qui-Gon with a wink and a grin -- but otherwise remained engrossed in swordplay. Their lightsabers crackled and threw off sparks and the odor of ozone as they crossed again and again. Dooku barely seemed to be moving, yet his lightsaber was always in exactly the right place to meet Qui-Gon's. Anakin could barely keep his eyes off them as he settled down by the wall. Lightsabers were one of the best parts of being a Jedi, he had already decided firmly. He couldn't wait to learn how to use one the way Dooku could.

Anakin yelped and then clapped when one of Qui-Gon's flips ended with a graceful landing and his lightsaber flying off to the side. Obi-Wan caught the extinguished hilt and tossed it back. "Wizard," Anakin breathed.

Obi-Wan glanced down at him. "You know," he said in amusement, "I always thought that was slang for self-trained Force-users the Jedi had never picked up."

Anakin blinked at him. "Well, I guess that means they'd be able to do really wizard things, wouldn't it?"

Obi-Wan looked as if this logic didn't entirely convince him, but said, "Perhaps so."

"When do you start learning how to use a lightsaber?" Anakin asked eagerly, watching the sparring match with shining eyes.

"Ah...fairly early. It may be a little longer for you, with the catching up you have to do. But it probably won't be much longer."

"It looks like fun."

Dooku laughed. "It is."

Anakin grinned over at him. "Thought so. You're not done already, are you?"

"I am, for the moment," Qui-Gon said, then glanced over with mischief in his eyes. "Although perhaps Obi-Wan could be persuaded to take a turn?"

Obi-Wan looked decidedly intimidated, but he bowed his head and stood. "If Master Dooku wants another partner, I'd be happy to oblige. I'm sure it will be very educational."

Dooku's eyes lit at the same time as his lightsaber blade, and he brought it up, around, and down again to the side in a flourishing salute. "I would be delighted."

Qui-Gon grinned and saluted them both with his water bottle, then walked over to fold down beside Anakin. "Obi-Wan's been sparring a lot since his Knighting," he told the boy as the duelists took their places. "And he was very good before that. This should be fun to watch."

Anakin bounced a little. "You were fun to watch too."

"Thank you. Master Dooku taught me very well. I know he's looking forward to beginning that part of your training."

"Me too!" Anakin watched eagerly as the new duel began -- a rapid exchange of blows, but light. Obi-Wan was jumping around less than Qui-Gon had, though still more than Dooku's casually elegant stillness, and seemed unwilling to go on the attack.

"Obi-Wan's been experimenting," Qui-Gon murmured, "with Form Three -- it's a less acrobatic and more defensive approach to lightsaber work than either of us have been using previously. Actually it's almost entirely defensive; an expert in it is not at much risk of getting hurt, but it takes the principle that a Jedi uses the Force for defense rather than attack to an extreme. I think the ideal end would be, theoretically, for your opponent to collapse in exhaustion." His mouth quirked. "Very few people actually stick to it the entire time. Currently he's flipping back and forth between that and Form Four, which is the one with most of the jumping around."

"Ohhh," Anakin breathed, his eyes wide and watching every move eagerly. "What about the one Master Dooku's using? It's different than either of you used."

"Good eye. That's Form Two, called Makashi. Master Dooku is the unquestioned master of it in the Order. It's the one most suited to lightsaber dueling, which isn't actually something we have much call for outside of practice. Although with a Sith running around again, we may all be brushing up on those skills."

"Is that why he wanted to go to Naboo as soon as you said you might be running into a Sith?"

"Mm. Master Dooku made something of a study of the Sith. He'd been warning for years that they hadn't completely vanished as we all thought. No one believed him. I didn't really believe him until we encountered the one on Tatooine."

"Oh." Anakin watched quietly for a moment. "I guess it's the kind of thing it's not much fun to be right about."

"I think he was certainly hoping to be wrong."

"Is there a reason there has to be another one," Anakin asked, "or is everybody just figuring there is to be careful?"

"Sith tradition... we think. There must always be two -- a master and an apprentice. More than that, and they begin fighting amongst each other -- though this does not make them much less dangerous to the rest of us, when it happens. They nearly destroyed the Republic last time. We believed them to be gone, for about the past thousand years, but there were some hints to the contrary." He sighed. "It follows that if the Sith have actually survived all these years, there would have to be more than one. We might have been lucky and caught them in transition, with only the one, but I doubt it. At any rate, we can't afford to be complacent about it this time."

Anakin dropped his voice almost too quiet to be heard under the clashing blades. "You don't think it's--" He didn't quite want to distract Dooku by saying the name. "The drug queen?"

Qui-Gon let out a breath between his teeth. "It's...possible, I suppose, though even if she has fallen to the Dark, there hasn't been much time for her to have gone to the Sith. Don't mention that theory to Dooku, if you please. We're looking into her, and...well, it's very hard to have lost a padawan to the Dark." Qui-Gon's eyes went shadowed. "Very hard."

Anakin nodded, and huddled a little, and looked back up at the duel. "--Oh!" He let out a little squeak when Dooku, for the first time, left the ground and flipped over Obi-Wan, just brushing the ceiling, and dropped to block Obi-Wan's startled spin.

Qui-Gon chuckled. "He tends to mock the 'foolish jumping around' of Form Four so often that people tend to forget Makashi is hardly an earthbound form itself."

"Ataru is showy," Dooku said without looking over at them. "It's meant to be. It is, admittedly, also useful on very mobile terrain -- as long as you keep track of it -- and if you are, for instance, half the height of most of your opponents and very, very fast."

"That would be Master Yoda," Qui-Gon explained with a grin. "Don't let the cane fool you. He's faster than any of us when he has the mind to be."

"...That's hard to imagine. Why does he use the cane then?"

"That, young padawan," Qui-Gon intoned, though with a mischievious glint in his eyes, "is a mystery of the Force."

"Watch your left elbow," Dooku said, presumably to Obi-Wan. "Not literally, of course."

"In other words," Anakin interpreted with a grin, "you don't know and you don't want to admit it."

Qui-Gon grinned. "I don't mind admitting it. One theory is that he wants the stick at hand to poke people with, although I personally think that's more of a side effect."

"I wouldn't put it past him," Dooku chuckled, making another leap and then getting beneath Obi-Wan's guard to disarm him.

They both stopped and stood back after that. Obi-Wan blew out a breath and wiped his forehead with his sleeve. "I thought I was in shape. I need to spar with you more while you're on planet."

"You need to let the Living Force support you," Dooku said, "but I certainly won't object to your suggestion."

"Can I watch if you do?" Anakin asked eagerly.

Dooku shut off his lightsaber and bowed to Obi-Wan, then cast his apprentice a lazy grin. "Perhaps we should start your own training, Padawan."

"Can we?"

"Of course we can." Dooku walked toward him. "I've been waiting until your background training was a little more caught up, but we can start with some of the basic forms."

Anakin bounced to his feet. "Wizard!"

"You'll need a training 'saber."

Anakin deflated a little at the delay, but then Dooku reached inside his robe and pulled out a small silver handle dwarfed by his hands. He held it out to Anakin with a smile. "I requisitioned one yesterday."

Anakin practically glowed. He turned the handle all around once and then pointed the emitter off to the side, bouncing a little on his toes at the brilliant white streak of light that extended from it.

"The first thing to remember, Padawan," Dooku said very seriously, "is that a lightsaber is not a toy. Nor is it merely a tool or a weapon. Your lightsaber is, quite simply, your life. It marks you as a Jedi to all who see it. If you dishonor it, you dishonor yourself as a Jedi, and all other Jedi. Do you understand?"

Anakin looked up, wide-eyed, and nodded.

"Good." Dooku stepped back. "We'll begin with the foundations of Form One."

It took well over an hour for Anakin to realize his arms were getting tired.

* * *


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Neither master nor apprentice liked tearing their lessons away from lightsabers after that, even if both realized it was necessary. Dooku quickly realized that in Anakin he'd found a true student of the art of lightsabers. The boy was insatiable, learning everything he could with startling swiftness and always wanting to know more. He studied the forms tirelessly, and his young body bounced around the sparring rooms with endless energy and surprising patience. Dooku learned that for any other lesson he needed Anakin to focus on, he merely needed to find a way to relate it to lightsabers and the boy would memorize it almost instantly.

It was sooner than he'd planned, therefore, that he arranged for a ship to take his new padawan to Ilum so the boy could craft a lightsaber of his own. He didn't think Anakin managed to sleep or even breathe on the journey there, so occupied was he in reciting everything the older padawans had told him about the trip and wondering aloud what he would face there.

Finally Dooku, hiding his chuckles behind the Master's stern mask, made the boy sit in silent meditation for the remainder of the journey. He cast a look over his shoulder at his quiet but not peaceful apprentice as they touched down gently on the landing pad. "You may speak now, Padawan."

Anakin bounced to his feet first, coming eagerly up beside Dooku. "It's so pretty! Wow, it really is cold, isn't it?"

Dooku glanced at the external temperature readings. "You'll want to dress warmly when you go into the caves, yes."

Anakin shivered. "Yuck. Okay." He ducked to the back of the ship to change. When he emerged, wrapping his warmest cloak tightly around him, he announced, "I'm ready, Master!" He swallowed, looking excited and nervous at once. "Are you going to come any of the way with me?"

"I will take you to the mouth of the cave," Dooku said. "The inward journey is yours to make."

And he'd be "tested" inside, although no one had said very much about what the testing entailed. Anakin swallowed and tried not to look nervous. "I'm ready." ...He thought. His first real test as a Jedi.

"Yes, you are," Dooku said. He paused and deliberately reached over to squeeze Anakin's shoulder. He was, if anything, less physically demonstrative than even many Jedi, but Anakin was vastly more so.

Anakin smiled up at him. "Thanks." He bounced a little on his toes again. "Let's get going! The sooner I get out of that cold, the better!"

"You can draw on the Force to help warm you," Dooku advised him, "though I believe you're dressed warmly enough that you shouldn't be in any danger if you don't." He led Anakin out of the ship and up toward the mouth of the caves. "I will wait for you here."

Anakin nodded wordlessly and took a deep breath before walking away. He kept his eyes trained on the cave mouth as he stepped forward carefully, minding his footing on the icy ground. The stories of the older padawans raced through his head. He thought they'd mostly been trying to scare him with their stories of vicious beasts and hallucinations, but you could never be too careful. He let out a little breath of wonder as he entered the cave itself. There was a long and winding pathway down, but he could see the brilliant blue and green sparkle of the crystals, glowing as if lit by the suns even though he couldn't see any hint of natural light reaching the cavern. But it wasn't the sight of the crystals that moved him. It was the feel, the rich symphony that flooded into his newly developed sensitivity to the Force. Each and every crystal here was a pure channel to the Force and resonated with it. Anakin was grinning as he started down the winding path. Then he was screaming as something pushed him off it and sent him tumbling to the cavern floor below.

He landed hard, but tucked up and went limp and rolled, and he felt, actually, a little as if the cave had caught him. But there was something else here that hated him, like he didn't think anybody before had hated him, even Sebulba who had maybe come close. It was beating at him, like a sandstorm, like the sun in the heat of the day, burning and scouring and he didn't know why.

The source of the hate loomed up at him, a tall slender shadow against the brilliance of the crystals. Anakin rolled over and scrabbled backward. A woman's voice said, "So you're the brat."

He had to fumble for the bond now, hard to reach in the panic and the hatred beating down on him. _I don't think this is supposed to happen!_ "I wasn't doing anything," he protested. "I just came for a crystal. This is a Jedi-protected planet."

He saw the gleam of light on teeth, a knife of a smile. "I've been here before. I don't see any protection."

"I'm not doing anything wrong. I'm allowed to be here. Who are you?"

The voice started off syrupy sweet and then dipped into sharp gravel. "Didn't your Master tell you about me?"

Was this part of the challenge after all? Was this the test he was supposed to face? Maybe it was all a vision or -- or someone who attacked all the new padawans to see if they were worthy. Anakin swallowed and scrambled to his feet. "He told me about a lot of people."

"I am someone he might have preferred to leave out." There was a hiss, and first one bloody-red streak of light and then another grew up, crossing over her chest and illuminating her face unpleasantly from below.

The only red lightsaber he'd seen before had been in the hands of the Sith on Tatooine and Naboo. Anakin swallowed uncomfortably, his heart racing. It was just a vision, he told himself. Just something drawn from his memories to test him. That was all. It wasn't real. "Then tell me who you are."

"The padawan he gave up on," she hissed.

"...Komari Vosa?" Anakin whispered. She surely wouldn't be here. Why would she be on Ilum when she was supposed to be in charge of a drug cult half a galaxy away? This had to be a test, that was it. He couldn't call out to Dooku, not if it meant failing his first test as a Jedi!

"So you do know of me," she whispered. "I'm surprised." That slow smile again. "This will be all the more fun."

"I know you were his padawan. I know you went Dark, and I know you run a drug cult now. He didn't tell me the last part. I told him. He thought you were dead. He was pretty upset about it."

"Hm. He might have come looking. But then I didn't matter by that point." Her head tilted a little. "I knew you came from an unusual background, little brat, but I didn't guess you'd know of me in my... newer role."

All right, if this was a vision, it was a really annoying one. "My name is Anakin, and I'm not a brat!"

"Anakin, then." She was laughing. "My little replacement."

She was making his skin crawl. "You can't be mad at me for being Master Dooku's padawan. You were already long gone by then. It's not like he gave you up for me."

"He seems to have been eager enough for a replacement," she spat. "How long do you think it will be before he gives up on you?"

"He won't!" Anakin said fiercely. If this was the test, he knew he'd pass it. "He said he won't, not ever, not as long as I keep wanting to learn and be a Jedi."

"Yes, well, he promised not to give up on me once, too. This is boring." The lightsabers switched off, and while Anakin was blinking in the changed lighting something screamed along his nerves saying _needle_. He reached back with the Force and squeezed. He didn't exactly feel anything, but there was a small, sharp shattering sound and a tiny splash.

And a growl. And then the lightsabers back and sweeping down toward him, and Anakin stumbled back, bringing his arms up, crossed like the blades, to shield his face and neck and chest. _Away--!_ There was an instant of searing pain, and then he caught on the song of the crystals and the red blades and their shadow were flying back--

To be stared at in momentary astonishment by the newest occupant of the cave, who had practically hurtled himself at the cavern opening and bypassed the winding paths in favor of a much swifter route, though one likely to be fatal if someone tried it without the ability to use the Force to control his fall. The blue glow of his lightsaber lit Dooku's face as he landed a few feet away. Not taking his eyes off where Komari landed, he asked in a low, tightly controlled voice, "Are you all right, Padawan?"

"Oh, I'm just wonderful," Komari snarled, leaping back to her feet and lighting both lightsabers with a snap-hiss. "But you were probably talking to your new brat, weren't you, Master?"

Anakin stumbled and fell. So... maybe not the test after all? "I'm okay," he said. Although his arms hurt. But they were still attached, so that was good.

Dooku's cloak fluttered next to him. "I was speaking to my current Padawan," he said levelly. "Komari, what are you doing here?"

"I heard you'd replaced me," she spat. "Didn't take you very long, did it? I wanted to give him a proper welcome."

"Somehow I don't think you mean Qui-Gon's blasted 'care and feeding' talk," Dooku said drily.

"No, you obviously don't care how good of a padawan you have. You just adopt the first pathetic little starveling that comes your way."

"Hey!"

Dooku glanced briefly toward Anakin at the outburst. "Actually, I'm very pleased with him. And I do not appreciate your trying to kill him." He shook his head. "Komari, you made your choice."

"You didn't give me a choice!" she snarled. "You cast me aside and you abandoned me!"

"You chose," Dooku said, "to refuse to learn when I was still training you."

"You questioned the Council and the Code with every breath! Why shouldn't I have done the same? Did I deserve to be left to die for what you taught me? Tell me that, Master. And now you face me, so self-righteous, so sure the perfect Master Dooku could never fallen, that you would never have given in. Given in! Do you even know what they did to me, Master? Do you even care?"

Stalking around them slowly, her blades casting a bloody glow on the cavern, she told him. In exquisite, loving detail, she described her capture, her torment. Every wound, every drug, every needle, every agony. "And if you think you've chosen so much better this time," she finished in a hiss, "we'll just see how your precious new padawan deals with the same thing."

Dooku had circled carefully to face her, caught by the horror, but aware of every footfall and where she was in relation to the path, to the crystals, to the cliffs, and most particularly to Anakin. He wasn't letting Anakin out of reach. (Granted, Anakin had not been the one being thrown through the air when he arrived, but still.) "To question is important," Dooku said, "to defy, sometimes necessary. But it seems that I failed you very deeply indeed if I never taught you to distinguish the essence of being a Jedi from the... political trappings." His voice dropped, very soft, whispering along the facets. "I did not leave you to die, Komari. I ended your training. I failed, one more time, in not watching against the possibility that you would do something rash. The few who came back from that mission believed you were dead, and when I searched I could not find you anymore." A short pause, and a sharp movement of his blade. "But you will not be allowed to harm Anakin."

A predatory smile. "Do you really think you're going to stop me?"

And she leapt at him, both blades flashing.

Dooku's blade arced, he pivoted and pushed, and Komari gave a strangled scream as she skidded off the level ground and down a steep slope, crystals dislodging under her feet and tumbling --

--down off the overhang and into deep darkness with only a faint turquoise glimmer. Komari dug her elbows in and flipped, rolling upward with both blades still tightly gripped. A second shove forced her to lose both of them to grab for support before Dooku, towering over her and braced on the slope, pinned her hands and wrists with the Force against rocks that had been loose and sliding a moment before.

"Actually," he said, "yes."

She struggled to free her hands. "You won't even face me honestly? You're getting old. What are you planning to do now, take me back to the Temple and mouth platitudes at me until you bore me to death?"

"I'm afraid," Dooku said icily, "I don't have time for that."

"Then kill me." She smirked up at him. "Show your new brat what you really are."

"I don't think I need to. Get up. I do not," he added, his eyes flicking briefly past her at two small objects rising through the air, "advise jumping down to try to reach your lightsabers -- or to run away."

"I assure you, I have no desire to run away," she hissed. He felt a malevolent stirring in the air, and then Anakin made a strangled noise as she struck him with the fury of the Dark Side.

Dooku reached down and cracked her head hard against the stone, then hauled her up to drop her on the path on his way to Anakin.

He knelt at the boy's side. Anakin had fallen and half-curled, shaking. "M-Master...."

"She's unconscious." Dooku stripped off his cloak and wrapped it around Anakin, and then realized that he wasn't going to let go. His mind flickered out through the Force and along the bond, and he had to stop and calm himself and let go of the anxiety so his perceptions would be accurate. "I apologize. I wasn't careful enough."

Anakin huddled against his chest. "I thought she was the test."

Dooku sighed, his breath clouding out in the cold air. "Unfortunately, when I first sensed you were unsettled, so did I. Although you appear to have handled--" He broke off as he sensed the streaked burns on Anakin's hands and arms. They weren't serious, exactly; they were only light, and of course the chill of the caves meant that the heat hadn't stayed in them too long, but-- "Anakin," he said in a somewhat strangled tone, "exactly what happened right before I got here?"

"She -- she tripped me when I was coming down the path." Anakin rubbed gloved hands together, against the chill of the caves and the chill inside him. "She...talked for a while. Then I -- I sensed something, like a needle. I pushed back and something fell." He gestured vaguely without looking up. "Then she jumped at me with her 'sabers lit and...I pushed back too." A short, sharp shrug. "Then you got here."

Dooku let out a long breath. "You saved yourself twice, then." He looked down, tucking Anakin closer against him. "In case you weren't aware of this," he added, "deflecting lightsaber blades without a lightsaber of your own is decidedly impressive."

Anakin sniffed. He thought it was from the cold. Not crying. "I still need to find a crystal...."

_Later. We can come back later. Don't make me let go yet._ But Dooku managed to almost smile and ruffled Anakin's spiky hair, touching the padawan braid lightly. "I would say you have passed any test that would be required of you, Padawan." He forced himself to let go and set Anakin on his feet again. "Listen to the Force. You know which one is yours."

Anakin drew in a shaky breath and closed his eyes, looking around. "What do I do if it's one of the ones she knocked over the cliff?" he asked, trying to make a joke of it.

"Call it to you," Dooku said. "Or there's a path that leads there, if you prefer."

Call it to him. There was an idea. Anakin wasn't entirely sure if he trusted his legs right now. Just standing was hard enough. Walking...and what if he walked all over the cavern and still couldn't find it? At least this would be quick. He closed his eyes and reached out to the Force. He felt a bright spark that seemed to have been calling to him since he came into the caves, if he hadn't been too busy to hear it. It made him smile, and suddenly his arms didn't ache quite so much.

Anakin opened his eyes and looked down at the bright blue crystal in his hands, the exact shade of the sky the last time he'd seen it on Tatooine.

Dooku blinked and slowly smiled. "Well done, Padawan," he said softly. "Very well done. Let's go."

Anakin closed his fist around the crystal and looked over at where Komari sprawled on the ground. "A-are you going to kill her?"

"No. It is not the Jedi way to kill a helpless... or even simply unarmed... opponent -- and I would not have liked to kill her even if I had been unable to defeat her otherwise." Sometimes there was no better choice, if you were in a particularly bad situation. Strength permitted mercy. "I plan to keep her unconscious while we return to the Temple and arrange custody."

Anakin closed his eyes and lowered his head miserably. "...I'm sorry I made you come in after me."

Dooku looked down at him in astonishment. "Anakin, you were ambushed. And doing remarkably well when I arrived."

"...I hurt my arms. The other padawans are going to laugh at me when we get back to the Temple."

"Anakin," Dooku said, "your arms are burnt because she hit them with a lightsaber. Ordinarily this would have cut them off."

"...I guess." Anakin shrugged. "Should we go now? It's cold."

"Anakin...." Dooku collected the shattered injector and scooped Anakin up, lifting Komari into the air at a distance with a flick of his fingers. "No one has any reason to laugh at you. And your arms will probably be healed by the time we get back."

They hurt, but Anakin didn't want to say anything. And anyway, the crystal was still glowing in his heart and making everything better. "Thank you, Master." He frowned downward. "I can walk."

"I'm sure you can. Indulge me." Dooku drew on the Force, which was running very strong here, and jumped. Crystals sparked and clattered under his boots when he landed a considerable distance upward.

Anakin twisted a little so he could see Komari's limp form following them obediently. "What's going to hapen to her when we get back to the Temple?"

"That... will depend, to some degree, on her. She's undoubtedly wanted as a criminal, but the Temple may be the only place that can safely hold her."

"...She said you were going to get tired of me and give me up. I didn't believe her."

"Good."

Anakin shivered as they left the caves and hit the full force of the winds outside. "Can we go to a _warm_ planet next?"

"We're going back to Coruscant first. I'll see what I can do about warm."

"Thanks." Anakin gave up talking and just huddled against his Master's chest the rest of the way back to the ship.

Dooku set Anakin down on a chair in the ship's lounge when they reached it, tucking the edges of the cloak in around him. "Wait here a moment." He took Komari to the small infirmary and laid her on the bed, carefully arranging the life support systems to deliver a constant sedative that would keep her out of trouble the trip back to Coruscant. Then he retrieved some bacta and bandages and went back to see to his padawan. "Let me see your arms."

Anakin held them out, biting his lip a little. Dooku eased the gloves off and the sleeves away carefully, reaching along the bond to soothe the pain as he cleaned the burns. He held the still-packaged bacta between his hands to take some of the chill off. There was a mumbling sensation as the heat began activating the organisms.

Anakin didn't let out a sound as Dooku began spreading bacta very gently over the burns, but his face was very white. Trying to sound cheerful, Dooku told him, "You'll have an easy time of it in the padawan lightsaber competitions now. Most of the younglings get distracted at the first burn, and that's only from training settings."

"Still not really looking forward to it," Anakin said, barely above a whisper.

"Padawan..." Dooku sighed. "Look at me, Padawan." When Anakin reluctantly dragged blue eyes up to meet dark ones, Dooku told him quietly but firmly, "I am proud of you, Anakin."

"But I--"

"I am proud of you," Dooku interrupted firmly. "You faced a trial harsher than you should have had to, and you acquitted yourself very well. Komari might not have been Knighted, but she was a fully trained Jedi otherwise, and I know from experience exactly how good a fighter she is." His voice went just a little rough as he laid a hand by the padawan braid. "You should be dead. I didn't get there in time to make a difference. That was you."

"...I was scared."

"Anakin... _so was I_."

Anakin's voice wobbled a little as he said, "Are you done with my arms?"

Dooku blinked, vaguely taken aback. "I need to put the bandages on so that the bacta stays in place." He suited action to words, smoothing the protective coverings into place. "...There."

Anakin lurched off the chair to throw his arms around Dooku's neck.

Dooku let out a surprised breath, but his arms came up to hold Anakin securely. Physical affection was not precisely common among the Jedi, even those not as reserved as he, but Anakin had been raised far from the Temple and by a loving mother. Depriving him of the touch he thought of as necessary and proper to a relationship would only make him doubt his Master or question his own worth.

...Or so Dooku told himself as he hugged the boy tightly. It had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with _his_ feeling better.

He wasn't sure how long he sat there, Anakin cuddled securely against him, before it finally occurred to him that they really ought to go ahead and get off the planet. Except that Anakin had, by that point, fallen asleep.

Dooku considered this for a moment and then took him along to the cockpit.

* * *


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

The path between Ilum and Coruscant was traversed frequently, and so the hyperspace route was refined over long years until the flight seemed to take hardly any time at all. Short enough, at least, that Anakin was still fast asleep by the time Dooku landed the ship smoothly on a Jedi-assigned landing pad. Dooku considered waking him, but the boy had had a very hard day. It wasn't difficult to disconnect Komari's sedatives, ensure she remained unconscious through a Force suggestion, and float her body behind them as he descended the landing ramp.

He wasn't expecting to have anyone waiting for him at the foot of the ramp. Qui-Gon was smiling, but it turned to concern when he saw the burden Dooku carried. "Is he--"

"Sleeping," Dooku interrupted quietly. "He did exceptionally well."

The smile returned, accompanied by a glint of humor. "Good."

"Indeed." Dooku cradled Anakin's head against his shoulder.

"So it was just very tiring?"

"I think he had more of a trial than could have been expected of him at this age," Dooku sighed. "And we had an unexpected visitor." He jerked his head back towards where Komari was gliding out of the ship.

Qui-Gon's eyes widened. "She--"

"Ambushed Anakin and tried to kill him. Nearly succeeded," Dooku growled, "in the time it took me to realize he wasn't merely having the usual challenges in the caves."

"Ah," Qui-Gon said. "In that case... I can see why you're still holding on to him."

Dooku raised his eyes toward the ceiling. "I can let go any time I need to." He started walking again, impatiently. "I need to deliver her to the Council. Come along if you wish."

"...Certainly," Qui-Gon murmured, and followed.

Anakin stirred once they'd gone inside, making a muzzy noise and shifting a little against his Master before waking up and seeing Qui-Gon walking beside them. "Master Qui-Gon!" He turned red and twisted to look around. "We're back at the Temple? Already?" _Master, I can walk!_

_I know. You were sleeping._ "Yes, we landed a few minutes ago."

_We're at the Temple. I should walk!_ "Oh. Then...um....can I get down now?"

Dooku lowered him, carefully and reluctantly. "If you wish."

"Thank you, Master." Anakin tried to straighten his clothing and generally look as if he hadn't just been napping on his master. The stupid bandages stuck out and made it hard to make his sleeves behave. He did the best he could and smiled up at Qui-Gon. "Hi, Master Qui-Gon. ...Did Master Dooku tell you I found my crystal?" he asked excitedly, reaching into his pocket to show it off.

"Called it to him," Dooku murmured. "Without looking."

"Really?" Qui-Gon's eyebrows rose. "I felt like I'd tried every crystal in the caverns before I found mine. May I?" He reached out to touch the crystal in Anakin's hand, brushing the bandages as well. "It looks like a very fine one. But how did you hurt your arms?"

Anakin went red and opened his mouth, but Dooku spoke first. "Evidently, he blocked Komari's lightsabers with them."

"What?"

"By the time I reached them, she had already tried to strike at him with some injection -- I retrieved it, but haven't analyzed it -- which he broke, and then with her blades. Specifically, he was lightly burned on both arms, and he had thrown her backward with the Force." He glanced down at Anakin. "I confess, I was somewhat startled to come to the rescue and find the enemy already flying back through the air. And more unsettled yet to find that I was in fact too late, and he might have been dead or maimed twice over if he'd been depending on my help."

Dooku didn't think he'd ever seen Qui-Gon actually struck speechless before. His mouth was working, but no sound came out. Finally he looked down at Anakin and managed, "Aren't you full of surprises?" Then back up at Dooku, and he murmured, "I'm impressed. I wouldn't have been able to put him down yet."

"I can walk," Anakin protested. "I'm doing it."

"I didn't say you couldn't," Qui-Gon assured him, amused. "But almost losing your padawan is very harrowing, and it tends to inspire the desire to cling irrationally for a while."

"I, um--" Anakin blinked and looked up briefly at Dooku as if he couldn't quite make the thoughts fit. "Oh."

"You're lucky," Qui-Gon added, clapping a hand on the boy's shoulders as they continued walking. "Master Dooku is one of the best non-Healers at healing. Looks like he took good care of you."

"He did," Anakin said. "My arms don't even hurt anymore. And he was really gentle getting the threads out."

"The threads?"

"They weren't exactly in," Dooku said. "But there were a few fibers from his sleeves stuck to the burned skin."

"Ouch." Qui-Gon ruffled Anakin's hair. "For not having gone on any actual missions yet, you've had a remarkably active life in the Jedi so far."

"I was on an actual mission," Anakin objected. "Even if Master Dooku and I weren't exactly supposed to be."

"Quite right. I meant officially on a mission." Qui-Gon chuckled. "You're going to turn Dooku's hair gray."

"I suppose it might do that these coming years regardless," Dooku said wryly.

"Oh hush, don't be logical on me."

Anakin looked up at Dooku appraisingly. "You don't look that old. How old are you?"

Dooku smiled. "Young enough to complete your training."

"Birthday coming up, haven't you?" Qui-Gon murmured.

Dooku rolled his eyes and amended, "Young enough to complete your training, but old enough to know how."

Qui-Gon laughed at that. "I wasn't disputing the point. I'm afraid to ask how you'd evaluate your age when you began to train me, now." He winked at Anakin, but his eyes cut sideways, back the way they'd come, while his head was still down.

Dooku snorted. "Old enough to train you, but young enough to be completely terrified most of the time."

"You should see the looks I get from Obi-Wan when I tell him about something that happened when you were the age he is now."

"I'm sure if he found the right padawan, he'd make an excellent Master."

"I've no doubt of it."

"How do you know if you've found the right one?" Anakin piped up. He was still learning about this whole Jedi thing, but he was a little confused about the interplay between the two Masters. They were joking with each other, but to his inexperienced ear, it sounded a bit... hollow. But Anakin thought, after seeing Qui-Gon's surreptitious look back at Komari floating behind them, that Qui-Gon might be trying to distract Dooku.

"The Force tells you," Dooku said with a fond look at both his padawans... and without looking back. "You see a youngling and simply know that you can't not train him."

Qui-Gon smiled. "It can be rather overwhelming."

"Especially when you're still a padawan yourself when it happens!" Dooku shook his head at the memory. "And you have to wait for your Trials certain at any minute that someone else is going to claim your padawan."

"I was so utterly bewildered when you asked."

"You didn't look it!"

"You didn't look terrified either! But I hadn't heard you'd even taken your Trials yet, much less were ready to take a padawan."

"Aah. I suppose that would have been odd."

"You really asked for him on the day you were Knighted?" Anakin asked. Even in his short time at the Temple, he knew that was unusual. Then he grinned and added, "And you brought all that up to avoid telling me how old you are, didn't you?"

Dooku smiled down at him. "Seventy. Seventy-one, of course, on the upcoming birthday." He rolled his eyes slightly at Qui-Gon.

Anakin stopped dead in the hallway and stared. "You can't be that old! That's -- that's -- that's ancient!"

Dooku blinked. "Well, I wouldn't go that far."

Anakin's eyes were wide. "I never even knew anyone that old. Not a human, at least. Kit's grandfather was fifty-eight, and he was all gray and couldn't walk very well or anything."

"...A combination of individual variations, the environment, and the Force, I think," Dooku said after a moment. "The Tatooine suns are harsh to say the least, and while being a Jedi is certainly risky," a rueful look back at Komari, "the health care between times is excellent. You have been aware for some time now of the effects the Force can have on your body: healing and health are among them."

"...Oh. I guess that makes sense, but you don't even look that old. I didn't think you were much older than Mom..."

"I'd imagine a great deal of that is the effect of differences in sunlight and water. ...Some may be genetic, actually. I was once introduced to my own parents and they didn't look that much older than I."

"...Oh." Anakin thought about this for a moment, then shrugged. "I guess it doesn't matter. It's not like you can't keep up better than I can anyway."

Dooku's mouth quirked. "Well. That will probably change eventually." He sighed and looked up the hall at the Council Chamber's doors. "I suppose it's time."

"This should be interesting," Qui-Gon murmured. Dooku chimed for entrance. "Forgive the intrusion," he told Master Ki-Adi-Mundi with a slight bow when the other being answered. "But I have a matter of some urgency for the Council."

Master Ki-Adi-Mundi looked past him, then stepped back and let them in. Dooku walked to the center of the circle and bowed. "My Padawan, Anakin Skywalker, has succeeded in finding his lightsaber crystal in the caves," he began, because that was the easy part, and then, "despite being ambushed in the course of it by Komari Vosa." He let her drift delicately onto the floor, still supine and unconscious.

Anakin stood beside and a little behind Dooku, as he remembered Obi-Wan doing when Qui-Gon addressed the Council about his training, and tried to keep his expression calm and Jedi-like. He actually looked calmer than many members of the Council just now. "Ambushed?" Master Yoda repeated, looking between Komari, Dooku, and Anakin consideringly. "Hmm. Injured, were you, Padawan?"

Anakin still found Master Yoda decidedly unnerving, but he swallowed and said, "Only a little."

"When little you are, little injuries still can be difficult," Yoda told him with a smile. "Master Dooku, a fuller report, please."

Dooku bowed slightly and began a precise recounting of his side of the matter, filled in with some of the information Anakin had relayed. It took Anakin a little while to realize that the odd feeling in his head was Master Dooku controlling what spilled across the bond, which probably meant he was still really upset.

"There is no question, then," Master Windu said in his deep voice when Dooku had finished, "that she had fallen to the dark side." Dooku bowed his head. "Regretably, no. She described her...conversion in some detail."

A sigh. "We will provide medical treatment in a holding cell, and alert the legal systems."

Dooku hesitated. "Masters...is she simply to be turned over to the courts? With all due respect, I don't know how much good they will do against a woman Jedi-trained and gone over to the dark side. And...I believe we have an obligation to try to help her."

"Return from the dark side, you think is possible?" Yoda asked neutrally.

"Ulic Qel-Droma," Dooku replied simply. "Our own history shows it is possible, under certain circumstances." He didn't point out that Qel-Droma had been severed from contact with the Force at th. "And...whether possible or not, I think we owe it to her to at least try. I think I owe it to her, if nothing else."

"Another Padawan, you have," Yoda said. "Many responsibilities. And much bitterness, and other things, between you. Want to help her, I have no doubt you do. But are you best to do so?"

"Perhaps not," Dooku admitted reluctantly. "But I at least owe it to see that she is helped, even if I'm not the best one to do so."

"A fair point," Yoda said. "How to accomplish it, we will discuss. Later."

"Yes, my Master." Dooku bowed his head. "And as you said, I have a padawan to tend to. I believe I should take him to the healers." He put his hand on Anakin's shoulder. "Where would you like me to take Komari first?"

"Hmm. The Healers, if unconscious you can keep her. Move her later, they will."

Dooku clasped his hands together again and bowed as Komari's body rose smoothly into the air. "Thank you, Master. I apologize for interrupting your session."

"Do not," Yoda said drily. "Warranted, it was, and know that I think you do."

"Good manners still require the effort," Dooku said with a faint smile. "May the Force be with you."

"And with you." A brief smile.

"Come, Padawan," Dooku murmured, Komari floating out the door in front of them.

Anakin followed, finding it somewhat unsettling to have Komari ahead of them where he could see her instead of floating off behind. Dooku was far quieter this time, too.

Anakin was glad Qui-Gon was coming with them.

The Healer padawan who opened the door to the infirmary nearly dropped his datapad in shock at the sight of the four of them. "Is your Master present?" Dooku asked smoothly.

The padawan's mouth worked for a moment with no sound before he blurted, "Yes, yes of course, one moment!" and scurried into the back.

Dooku moved inside smoothly, gesturing so Komari floated onto a bed. He inclined his head as Healer Caudle came out at her padawan's side. Her eyebrows flew up. "...That's Komari Vosa."

"Yes, I know," Dooku said. "She may have a fracture of the skull. Anakin has light burns on his hands and arms, although they may be mostly healed. She struck at him with the dark side of the Force once after that, but I could find no lingering damage."

"Have you been keeping her sedated?"

"Yes. Sedatives on the ship, Force suggestion for now. I can remove it when you wish."

"Hmm. Soon. Anakin, let's have a look at you first."

Anakin obediently held out his hands, and he felt an odd sensation sweep along them, concentrating on the burns, and then spreading out through his whole body. It must be Master Caudle's feeling in the Force. After a moment she nodded and it stopped. "I won't take the bandages off yet, but they won't need replacing. I don't sense any lasting damage beyond that, either."

"Master Dooku took care of everything," Anakin explained earnestly. "I'm fine, really. You don't have to mess with me."

Caudle smiled at him. "I'm done with you. I'll just look Master Dooku over, though I doubt I'll have much to do there either, and then move on to the more time-consuming one."

Anakin looked over at his master worriedly. "He wasn't hurt, I didn't think."

"I'm not," Dooku assured him. "She just has an obsession with prodding me at every opportunity."

"It's a perfectly standard post-mission checkup, though he skips half of them."

"I don't need a check-up. Pay attention to Komari."

"Don't start blocking me now, I'm nearly done."

Dooku sighed impatiently. "Komari. She was tortured by the Bando Gora, and I don't know what's happened to her since."

"Aside from the skull fracture?"

"I hit her head on a rock when she attacked Anakin that last time. In my hurry to make sure she was incapacitated I was not altogether careful." He paused. "She may have also taken some injury when Anakin threw her across the caverns when he deflected her lightsabers with his bare arms. She was moving fairly well after that, but she can work through pain."

Caudle's eyebrows shot up as she turned at last to Komari. "Interesting mission."

"It wasn't a mission. We went to Ilum."

"Ah. Ambush?"

"Yes. In the caves." Dooku moved to stand by Anakin again, resting a hand on his shoulder.

Caudle closed her eyes for a moment, concentrating on what seemed to be a Force-scan of Komari's injuries, and then pulled an electronic scanner over. "Nice work on the mix of sedatives," she said after a moment. "She's built up a tolerance to a lot of them."

"Maybe we should leave the healers to their work, Dooku," Qui-Gon suggested quietly.

Dooku couldn't take his eyes away from Komari. "No."

A pause. Qui-Gon said after a moment, "Why don't I take Anakin to get something to eat?"

_Don't take him, he's mine!_ "I--" Eyes dragged reluctantly from Komari to Anakin, Anakin to Qui-Gon. Padawans past and present. "I should tend to him."

"You've obviously done a good job of it already," Qui-Gon said. "We could bring you a tray."

"...Anakin is my padawan." Not Komari. Not anymore. Was Master Yoda right? Could he help her now? "I should tend to him. Healer Caudle can manage the prisoner well enough."

Caudle glanced up. "I should be able to, yes. If you want to stay and help I won't complain either. He's right, you've taken excellent care of Anakin already."

He was fairly certain that would mean letting go of Anakin. He could do that. Possibly. But he didn't want Anakin to think he was being abandoned for Komari. Dooku looked down at the boy and asked, "What would you prefer, Padawan?"

Anakin looked back up with an expression of deep thought. After a long moment he said, "If Healer Caudle's worried about her resisting the sedatives maybe Master Qui-Gon and I should just bring you lunch."

"...An excellent compromise, Padawan." He ruffled the boy's spiky hair, touching the stubby padawan braid lightly. "Go on, then. Get cleaned up first, perhaps."

"Okay!" He stopped, looking at his hands. "The bandages...."

"Will be fine in water," Dooku assured him.

"Okay." Anakin considered, then wrapped his bandaged arms around Dooku's waist and hugged tightly. "I hope Komari gets better."

Dooku hugged back automatically, at this point more startled by the sentiment than the embrace. "So do I," he said. "And that... speaks very well for you."

He shrugged, letting go and going back to Qui-Gon's side. "We won't be long, Master."

Dooku smiled a little -- perhaps not very steadily -- and they went their way. He turned his attention to Caudle and Komari.

...Though he saved a little piece of it for the bond.

* * *


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Anakin and Qui-Gon made a brief stop at Anakin's quarters for a shower and a change of clothes. Then Qui-Gon led them to the refectory. They took a small table off to the side, claiming a bit of quiet among the bustle. Qui-Gon raised his eyebrows at Anakin as the boy began working through a massive plate of food. "So what did you think of Ilum?"

"It was cold," Anakin said. "But the crystals... sing."

"Mmm. That they do. I felt like my blood was singing for days afterwards."

Anakin broke into a grin. "I liked the caves. Even, um. Even after she showed up."

"Master Dooku said you acquitted yourself very well," Qui-Gon observed. Then he smiled. "And as you've no doubt seen, he doesn't compliment unless you've done very well indeed!"

Anakin blinked as a previously solid-looking fruit turned out to have a juice pocket that squirted him. He licked up most of it and applied a napkin. "I think he's trying to do a little bit more of it," he said quietly, and perhaps a little sheepishly, remembering when he'd run off about it. "Because I still don't really know what I'm supposed to be doing sometimes."

"You've learned a great deal in a very short time, Ani. You should be proud. Most padawans have years of training before they're ever bonded to a master."

"I know." Anakin paused, frowning suddenly. "Some of the other kids don't like it. Master Dooku said they worry about whether they'll get chosen and he lost a friend that way once, but I didn't ask him more about it then...."

After a moment's hesitation, Qui-Gon said quietly, "His name was Lorian Nod. I met him once, when I was still a padawan. I...think his story is Dooku's to tell, but he was expelled from the Order when he was...too eager to attract a master's attention."

"...How'd you meet him when you were a Padawan, then? Can you tell me that part?"

"I suppose so. He'd become a space pirate-- what?"

Anakin was scowling outright, an expression rare among Jedi other than very small children and sometimes Master Yoda. "Pirates took my mom prisoner and sold her."

"...Ah. I assumed she'd been born on Tatooine."

"No." Anakin shook his head, then touched his mouth briefly. "She still sounds kind of like where she lived before, but she never talked about it very much."

"I see. It was...probably easier for her that way."

"I guess so." Anakin looked down at his plate, appetite suddenly diminished, but went on eating anyway. His body was still hungry, even if he was unhappy. "I hope she's okay."

"I'm sure she is. She struck me as a very resourceful and resilient woman."

"She is. Just...." She was a slave, and Tatooine was dangerous even if you weren't. Anakin realized with a jolt that she used to worry about him like this.

He wondered if she still did. Being a Jedi was dangerous too, as the bandages on his hands reminded him, but... it didn't feel the same. Then again, it never had felt the same when it was a danger he'd chosen.

One day, he'd go back and free her. Maybe he couldn't free all the slaves, like Master Dooku said -- although he was still going to try to figure out a way -- but he could free her. Determinedly, he kept eating and asked Qui-Gon, "So how did you meet Lorian Nod if he was a pirate?"

"He captured us, actually. He'd arranged a betrayal on the part of someone on the ship we were escorting. He was defeated and imprisoned in the end, though." Qui-Gon's mouth quirked. "Actually, he finished his sentence and proceeded to get into trouble again, which Obi-Wan and I had to deal with."

Anakin blinked. "So what happened to him then? Um, should I be expecting to run across him sometime?"

"I certainly hope not. He was sentenced again -- I suppose it might be too much to hope that he's learned his lesson, but perhaps he'll behave himself."

"Oh, good. Um, do you think Master Dooku would mind if I asked about him? I don't want to make him mad."

Qui-Gon hesitated. "I don't think he'd be angry with you, but it would probably be an uncomfortable subject. He told me about their original falling-out, but very... briefly. Then again, sometimes he is more quiet about things than is good for him."

"...He talks to me a lot. Mostly about lightsabers," Anakin admitted with a quick grin, "but I like him a whole lot."

Qui-Gon broke into a grin of his own. "He is always willing to talk about lightsabers, and I think he's delighted to have such a willing listener. I'm glad to hear you like him."

"Of course I do! He knows everything, especially about lightsabers. And he'll always talk to me and not act like I'm stupid. Well, not anymore, but he didn't know he was doing it then."

"I am glad you got that cleared up. It seemed to have both of you rather upset."

"...Master Dooku was upset? He doesn't get upset."

Qui-Gon cocked his head. "You weren't comforting him, when you hugged him in the Infirmary?"

"...Well, of course he'd be upset over that."

"Mm. He doesn't show it easily or willingly, as a rule. But he was certainly troubled when we started the practice duel you caught us in eventually. And quite genuinely baffled as to what had distressed you. I was a bit taken aback when he said he was going to wait and let you talk to Obi-Wan, but it seems to have been a good decision."

"...Obi-Wan's nice. He didn't like me at first, but he likes me a lot more now. And...he's, um... he's still a lot older than me, but..."

"Easier to talk to sometimes?" Qui-Gon smiled. "I suppose so." His eyes glinted. "A lot older than you, hm? --Actually I suppose he does have a few more years on you than Dooku has on me."

Anakin laughed. "That must've been so weird! I can't imagine having Obi-Wan as my master!"

Qui-Gon grinned. "I'm sure he'd have managed, but I think he's just as glad to wait a while." He glanced from his own emptied plate to Anakin's. "Shall we put together Master Dooku's tray?"

"Oh. Yeah, good idea." Anakin took one last bite to clean off his plate. He hadn't gotten out of the habit, even though food was not in short supply at the Temple as it had been on Tatooine. As they went to pick up a new tray, he asked anxiously, "Is there anything special I should do for Master Dooku? To make it easier on him, I mean."

Qui-Gon smiled down at him. "A kind thought. I think you're doing very well, as it is. You were very tactful in the infirmary; I know he doesn't want to neglect his responsibilities to you, or even let you feel as though he might, but he does bear some responsibility toward -- or at least for -- Komari as well, and probably feels more of the weight of it than he should. And you were probably right about it being a good idea in practical terms for him to stay in case he was needed to keep control of her." A snort. "And definitely right about bringing him food if he did. Not that the Healers would let him starve, but while he'll warn you dutifully about the importance of maintaining your body regularly when you have the opportunity, he is occasionally a little too focused."

"...He took me when pretty much everyone else -- except you -- wanted to send me back to Tatooine," Anakin said quietly. "I just want to help him too." He swallowed and concentrated on selecting all of his master's favorite foods to fill up the tray. Not that he'd had a lot of time to watch Master Dooku eat, but he had some ideas after a few months. And some of them didn't look familiar, but still just looked right.

"...You have," Qui-Gon said quietly. "I could tell from the way he told the stories that he is very proud of you, though he was also very frightened for you."

"I didn't mean to worry him! I tried to do it myself. I thought it was a test at first. No one really tells you a lot about what you'll see in the caves."

Qui-Gon's mouth twitched. "As far as I can tell, you reacted quite appropriately. Master Dooku is perturbed by the fact that after his own trips into the cave and four previous padawans, he didn't realize it was more than the usual test at first."

"...I was really glad to see him when he showed up," Anakin admitted. "I pushed her away, but I think I just made her mad."

"I've no doubt she was angry about it, but you prevented her from seriously harming you long enough for him to arrive -- which is the important part."

"...I still got hurt. Master Dooku was really worried. He was -- you know when he gets so pale you can see his pulse?" Anakin put a cover on the tray to keep the food warm, then declared decisively, "I'm going to make my lightsaber, and I'm going to study really hard. And next time I'll do better."

"You protected yourself from an adult who had nearly completed her training, was better armed than you, and was no doubt willing to fight dirty," Qui-Gon said, then smiled. "But I've no doubt you will continue to improve."

"I'm going to be the best Jedi ever," Anakin pronounced firmly.

"Perhaps you will!" Qui-Gon chuckled as they carried the tray off. "The Jedi ideal," he added thoughtfully, "is not to concern oneself overmuch with competition. But I don't think it's something that can be wholly eliminated for most people."

"Master Dooku said...it's bad to -- to want to be better than other people. But that it's good to try to be the best you can be."

Qui-Gon politely refrained from commenting on Master Dooku's own competitive streak regarding lightsabers. To be fair, of course, Dooku always wanted his (Jedi) opponents to be better, too. Qui-Gon had half expected him to start instructing the Sith they'd fought, sheerly from force of habit. "Master Dooku is certainly right about that."

Anakin remained thoughtfully silent until they got back to the infirmary. Komari was still lying silently in bed, Master Caudle standing over her and consulting the scanners. Dooku was prowling around the perimeter, looking vaguely like a caged beast. He looked up when the door swished open, scowling, but he consciously eased his expression when he saw who it was. "Ah, thank you, Padawan. Qui-Gon. I hope you had a pleasant lunch."

"It was good," Anakin said, looking around for a place to put the tray. Caudle pointed, without looking up, to a small table. "We brought yours, too."

Dooku didn't feel the least bit hungry. "Thank you."

"How's it going in here?"

"Komari is...mostly fine, physically. A few fractures, either from when Anakin threw her or when I knocked her out. A drug dependence they can wean her off of in a holding cell."

"It won't be a comfortable process," Caudle put in, "but she will be healthier for it afterward. Master Dooku, I think I can spare your attention long enough for you to eat."

He didn't want to eat. Actually, he didn't want to do anything. But fuel for his body was important. He seated himself reluctantly by the tray. He smiled reluctantly when he lifted the cover and saw the foods Anakin had selected. "I have no idea how you managed to learn all my favorites already. Did Qui-Gon help you?"

"I did not," Qui-Gon said. "I was prepared to, but it seemed entirely unnecessary." His mouth quirked. "I think he must have divined it through the Force -- I'm fairly sure this is the first time they've served Kavirran greens this year. They only just came into season."

"They looked good. I thought you'd like them," Anakin explained earnestly.

"I like them very much." This would probably be more convincing if he ate them. Dooku picked up one of the bushier sprigs and put it into his mouth, blinking a little as the juice pods popped between his teeth and spilled their sweet-sharp flavor across the green warmth of the leaves. Kavir plants were sturdy things and took more effort to chew than it looked like they should, but the taste and vitamin content made them more than worth it. "Thank you. ...Did you try them?"

"Just a little. They take too long to chew! But I liked them. We didn't get to eat a lot of greens on Tatooine. Mostly fungus."

"These are fairly sturdy," Dooku admitted. He glanced thoughtfully at them, thinking of the conditions where they grew. "I don't think they'd do well on Tatooine, but they would probably try."

"Gardens didn't do real well on Tatooine. You had to be pretty rich to have one. You could grow fungus on a vaporator, though, or find them in caves sometimes."

"I understand an abrupt climate change many millennia ago wiped out most of the native flora," Dooku said. "Even the desert-adapted plants haven't had as much time to get a foothold as some places."

A quick grin from Anakin. "Before my time, Master, sorry. Shouldn't you be eating?"

"I am eating." Slowly. He probably shouldn't let the soup congeal, so he poked a spoon into it. A skin had formed, but steam broke through and dissolved it rapidly. His mouth quirked. "It was before my time as well, but then I was officially trained by a historian and less officially by an eight-hundred-year-old Master, so I suppose I picked up some interest in the subject."

Anakin shrugged, taking a seat beside Dooku and kicking his feet as they dangled over the edge. "I don't really see the point of history. It already happened, didn't it? Why should we care?"

"Often things that happened in the past affect our present and future." Dooku glanced up at Komari with some pain. "And with a longer reach than we might think. The Sith were long believed to be a part of the past that we need not revisit much."

Anakin grimaced. "I guess so."

Dooku sighed. "At least we recognized them when they turned up again." Except that there was still another one sneaking around. Probably. Komari might have gone Dark and taken up waving around red lightsabers, but he didn't think she had been trained as a Sith.

"Well," Qui-Gon amended, his mouth twitching up, "some of us did. If he hadn't turned up on Naboo, I don't think the Council would believe us yet."

"I knew you listened to me occasionally."

"More than occasionally. I just don't let on about it often."

"I'll keep that in mind." Dooku mopped up the rest of his soup with the soggy end of its bread-spoon.

"Is there anything else I can do to help, Master?" Anakin asked quietly.

Dooku looked at him, mildly startled, and then managed a quiet smile. "You've been very helpful already, Anakin. Thank you."

"...Are you going to stay here with Komari all night?"

Dooku hesitated, glancing up at the Healer. "Only if necessary for security," he said.

"It shouldn't be," Caudle said. "At any rate, I think by the end of the day we'll be able to move her."

Into a holding cell. Dooku sighed. "Then I'll leave once she's secured. You don't have to stay here until then, Padawan." A quick look at Qui-Gon. "I'm sure Qui-Gon will keep you company, if you like. Or I believe Obi-Wan is still on planet."

"I don't mind staying with you."

"You have assignments to do. And there won't be anything interesting going on here."

"I could bring them, if they won't be in the way." _You seem like somebody ought to keep you company too._

"...You may if you wish."

"Okay. I'll do that."

"Thank you for your dedication," Dooku murmured, putting an arm around Anakin's shoulder. The boy probably needed the reassurance after today.

Anakin leaned into him a little. He was still going to do better next time, but he was pretty sure his performance wasn't what had Dooku rattled, mainly. It was kind of weird to think about, though.

"I'll get this tray back," Qui-Gon spoke up after a moment, his mouth twitching up at the two of them. "Anything else you'd like me to send down?"

"I guess I should get my assignments--"

"You stay there," Qui-Gon said, still smiling faintly. "I'll be in and out."

"Okay," Anakin agreed, resting his head against Dooku comfortably.

Dooku hesitated over whether to respond -- there was no good reason Qui-Gon should have to fetch and carry for Anakin to do his schoolwork -- but on the other hand, there was also no good reason the two of them shouldn't be permitted to make that arrangement themselves. And it was kind of them, if unnecessary.

*****

The evening was strange and quiet, even after Komari had been moved and Caudle had sternly shooed Dooku and Anakin away. Komari was secure -- it would be arrogant to claim the holding cell was impossible to escape, but it would certainly be difficult. The Temple included facilities, built long ago, for containing Sith prisoners.

Even though she wasn't physically in their quarters with them, Komari was very much present through the rest of the evening. Dooku tried to act normally, quizzing Anakin about the finer points of lightsaber construction in preparation for using his crystal soon. But his mind kept drifting to the holding cell, and to his past. Surely there was something he could have done that would have kept this from happening....

And when he finally bid Anakin good night and sought his own bed, Komari haunted his dreams.

Until, that is, he was startled awake by a surge of terror and pain from the bond. He was in Anakin's room with his lightsaber drawn before he was even fully awake.

It was probably just as well, then, that they had built up as much trust in their short time together as they had. Anakin jolted awake on Dooku's arrival, sitting bolt upright in bed, and it might perhaps have been understandable if he'd been further alarmed to find someone standing over him with a lightsaber. Especially after the caves.

Instead he blinked a few times and then slumped backward. "Oh. We're here."

Dreaming, too, then. Dooku switched off the blade. "Yes."

Anakin sniffed a little, wiping his nose with the edge of his sleeve. "I didn't mean to wake you up, Master. Everything's f-fine."

The light was dim, but Dooku could still see him shaking.

It seemed intrusive, but after a moment he followed the impulse to sit down on the edge of Anakin's bed and put a hand on his shoulder. Evidently this didn't seem unduly intrusive to Anakin, as in the process of reaching for Anakin's near shoulder Dooku found himself with the opposite shoulder and a Padawan tucked against his chest. Well, that worked too. "What were you dreaming?" he asked quietly.

"My mom," Anakin said in a very small voice. "I know Master Yoda said I'm not supposed to miss her."

"Master Yoda is going on a hundred times your age. The number of people he has cared about and has seen for the last time probably exceeds the number I've ever met. And what I sensed from you sounded somewhat more acute than missing her."

"...I left her," Anakin said miserably, his voice muffled as he buried his face in Dooku's chest. "She doesn't have anyone left to help her, and...it's dangerous there. What if Watto sells her? He lost a lot of money betting on Sebulba. I -- what if he already did? I could feel her... hurting."

Dooku shifted slightly. "Actually," he said slowly, "I haven't checked comm messages since we got back, but I hope she has been freed by now."

He could feel Anakin stiffen. "Master Qui-Gon tried to free her too, but Watto wouldn't do it."

"As I understand it, Qui-Gon's options were somewhat limited at the time. I contacted my family's Steward on Serenno and suggested she intervene."

Anakin blinked at him. "You did what?"

It was hard to see in the dim light, but Anakin thought Dooku looked slightly embarrassed. "The family I was born to had...some measure of wealth and influence, both on Serenno and beyond. I've tried to abdicate it any number of times, but I actually still have a title there, and will until I die, apparently. Until then, my...niece, I believe, is running things as a steward. I contacted her when we were still on Naboo, actually, and mentioned your mother's situation. Buying and freeing one slave would hardly be difficult for her, and she could provide your mother with employment for as long as she wishes."

Anakin blinked several more times. "Oh. ...What's Serenno like?"

"I don't remember it. I was only four when I came to the Temple." Dooku paused, his head tilted. Then he said slowly, "There were roses. And the scent of the sea."

"...That sounds nice." Anakin relaxed a little. Those sounded like good memories... he'd liked the smell of the sea on Naboo, and he'd met rosebushes -- they were strange pretty things without being pushovers. And if she didn't like it, she wouldn't have to stay, right? Maybe she could even find the rest of her own family....

"Yes." Dooku summoned a smile. "I'm sure the Steward would have carried out my request by now and your mother is exploring Serenno as we speak. So don't worry that your dream was some sort of foretelling." He ran a hand across spiky hair, brushing the padawan braid lightly. "Sometimes even Jedi just have bad dreams, especially after facing the Dark Side."

"I dreamed her still on Tatooine," Anakin said. "So I hope she's not there anymore. And that there weren't any more pirates."

Dooku's smile became a tiny bit more natural. "From my admittedly brief dealings with the Steward, I think the pirates would be in trouble."

Anakin managed a tired giggle. "So in other words, there's a strong family resemblance?"

Dooku smiled a little. "Perhaps. At any rate she believes in being prepared."

"...Thank you for asking her. I know you didn't have to."

"...I-- You're welcome." Dooku sighed a little. "It was something I could do. There are too many times the... side effects of a mission aren't something we have the opportunity to address." From the look Anakin gave him, that was too much and not enough. "Some years ago -- when I was still training Komari -- a mission I was leading turned a captive over to the local government. I do not say 'criminal,' because by this point I strongly suspect he wasn't the one best suited to the term even at the time. The governor was corrupt, and sold him. To someone rather more discreet than Watto, and harder to find." Although there were a few reports that made him suspect Fett was on the loose again.

"...Oh. So Tatooine's not the only place..." Anakin swallowed and leaned against Dooku again. "Can't Jedi keep things like that from happening?" _Or why not?_

Dooku looked into the dark. "We can reduce them. Usually. That mission was a disaster all around: we took heavy losses, killed more of our opponents than we would have liked, and won in the end -- which I count as part of the disaster, because from what I eventually learned, I think we were on the wrong side." He probably wasn't helping with the nightmares. Dooku heaved a sigh. "But we have done much good at other times and places. Even so... not everything. We can -- very often -- enforce, or remedy, or punish, or persuade, and we can work to prevent. But so long as imperfect people are free to make our own choices, some of us will at times make the wrong ones."

Anakin clenched a fist around Dooku's night tunic. "...Then why can't someone else just make the decisions? Who won't make the wrong choices?"

"Aside from the difficulty in finding such a person? Because that would essentially involve enslaving everyone else."

Anakin frowned. "I guess...."

Dooku glanced down at him. "Would you think it right, if you were never to be expected to act on your own judgment?"

"No," still frowning, "but you tell me when I'm doing things wrong."

"Because I'm supposed to be teaching you, so that when your training is complete and you're entirely responsible for your own decisions, you will have a strong basis for making them. Oh, you'll still be answerable to the Council -- we're all answerable to someone -- but they will generally not be the ones on the spot. What you do when you are will have to stand or fall, with its consequences to you and the others and the Force, whatever they think of it afterward."

Anakin parsed his way through that -- his master was rather fond of giving long answers to any question -- and finally asked, "But if you say we're all answerable to someone, how is that different than someone telling us what's the right choice?"

Dooku blinked. "They may well have an opinion on the subject. But you will have to make the decision yourself, and face the consequences." His mouth quirked. "Even to follow someone else's suggestion is a decision."

Anakin frowned. "I don't see the difference, Master."

Dooku sighed and brushed a hand over Anakin's hair gently. "Was there a difference to you in your mother telling you to do something and Watto or your other owners telling you what to do?"

"Yes, but... I was thinking for it to be so it was good for people...."

"...Even the most evil among us rarely think that they are evil. They think that they're doing what is best, even if their opinion of what is best is warped or twisted with darkness. And there's always the question of how to define 'best'. Watto was most likely doing what he considered 'best' for him, even if it wasn't best for you and your mother. As Jedi we will often see situations where what is best for many people is not always good for certain individuals."

"There ought to be something that works out best for everybody."

"We always seek that solution, but it is not always the case. It would be best, for example, from your point of view for all the slaves on Tatooine to be freed. From their owners' point of view, they might lose their livelihood. It is rare to find a situation where everyone will be happy with the solution." A faint smile. "They say compromise is the art of finding a way to make everyone equally unhappy with the outcome."

"Shouldn't be depending on owning people for their livelihood," Anakin grumbled.

"I agree with you entirely, but this is one reason finding someone to tell everyone what to do would be a practical problem even if it were not a moral one. It would be very likely for the position to go to someone who was interested in holding power over others, and skilled at acquiring it."

Anakin considered this for a while, chewing at his lower lip thoughtfully. "I still think it would be the best way to handle things, but I guess it would be hard to actually do."

Dooku shook his head. "Individual responsibility and freedom are important. There will always be people and circumstances that constrain our actions, in addition to our own interests and principles -- but it's not healthy to spend our entire lives being parented, or right to force it on others."

"But you know what's right!"

Dooku chuckled. "I look forward to reminding you of this conversation when you are a teenager and rebelling against every word I say."

Anakin yawned. "I like having somebody I can ask stuff...."

Or, apparently, fall asleep on.

Dooku smiled and gently moved Anakin to lie back down against his pillow. Then he pulled the blanket back up securely -- Anakin was always chilled, even in the climate-controlled Temple. But he found himself just sitting there on the edge of the bed, his hand warm on Anakin's shoulder.

His newest padawan was sleeping peacefully in front of him. His last...was somewhere in the Temple, anything but peaceful. And he...

...He didn't want to leave Anakin's side just yet.


End file.
